Apologies can be all too rare…but they certainly go a long way…
Native Virginian, Sara Shanley is interning with SFCG Liberia. She is working towards a graduate degree at American University where she studies comparative and regional studies in Africa with a concentration on youth in development and conflict resolutions. She has previously spent time in Uganda doing health development work. Currently she is working with SFCG’s Talking Drum Studio in Liberia to conduct focus groups concerning the recent government initiative that directs health practitioners to provide free medical care to pregnant women and children under five. SFCG previously conducted survey in different districts in Bong County and the focus groups are meant to follow-up with the earlier investigation.
By Sara Shanley
June 28
We finished up with the focus groups today. Our main concern has been the care and treatment that patients receive at clinics. The main complaint, we heard is the attitude of nurses. Some pregnant women reported having to cut grass before being seen at the clinic. read more…
Sarah Gardiner is interning with SFCG in Côte d’Ivoire this summer. A junior at Georgetown University where she majors in Culture and Politics, she recently studied abroad in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Sarah is especially interested in the intersection between art and social change.
Conceptions and Reality
By Sarah Gardiner
- Sarah at work
I’ve been in Abidjan for about three days now. My plane touched down on Sunday at noon. Within an hour, I was at the house of Search for Common Ground’s Country Director in Côte d’Ivoire, sitting at her dining room table and trying to force my tired brain into alertness. Spès Manirakiza is the sort of person who gives the impression of constant vigilance, always ready with questions and comments. As she uncovered plates of food for lunch, she looked at me and smiled, “So, you are the girl behind all those e-mails.” I could feel myself blushing, thinking about every e-mail I’d sent asking about the security situation in Côte d’Ivoire. “I could feel that you were nervous,” she said, adding, “I asked myself who is this Sarah? I was laughing at you.” She didn’t say this unkindly, just as an amusing observation. I smiled back and looked around, marveling at the contrast between all the travel advisory warnings my mother was sure to send me and the cheerful interior of Spès’ house.
Astronaut Rusty Schweickart said the following poem had become a part of him after he had the transformative experience of looking down at the earth without borders and realizing his sphere of identification had grown to include the whole world…
i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
~ e.e. cummings
SFCG’s Studio Ijambo Staffer Wins Journalism Award
Charles Ndayisenga with his award
Congratulations to Charles Ndayisenga of Studio Ijambo in Burundi, who won first prize for his show, Icibare CaCu, in an award given by UNHCR and the Bureau Integré des Nations Unies au Burundi (BINUB).
The award ceremony was held this year in Bujumbura on June 20th, marking World Refugee Day. First prize was awarded to a media professional who produced and broadcast an exemplary show on refugees and/or returnees.
Icibare CaCu is a radio program that airs every week in Burundi and across the Tanzanian border in the refugee camp and revolves around land conflict in Burundi. It is a problem faced by many Burdundians because of limited access to land and the repatriation of returning refugees. The prize was awarded for an episode on access to cultivable land for returnees.
A recent monitoring survey on Icibare CaCu showed that half of all radio listening respondents listen to the program. 81% of respondents who listen regularly said that the program helps them know how to resolve conflicts.
Congratulations again to Charles and Studio Ijambo!
International Development Program Coordinator Sarah McLaughlin traveled to Timor Leste to see the site of our exciting new country program.
Timorese beach at sunset
Background
Timor is a small island in Southeast Asia at the east end of the Indonesian chain of islands. Blessed with more than its fair share of natural beauty, it seems almost synonymous with “island paradise.” Yet strife has touched much of the island’s history. It has been politically divided since the Dutch and Portuguese struggled over the island in the 16th century.
